Common Name: MAHOGANY FAMILY Habit: [(Perennial herb), shrub] or tree; wood hard, often aromatic. Leaf: generally alternate, often clustered near stem tips, generally odd-2-pinnate, bases generally swollen; stipules 0. Inflorescence: panicle [raceme or umbel]. Flower: generally bisexual, radial; sepals generally 3--5, fused at base or not; petals generally 3--5, free [or +- fused at base or to filament tube]; stamens generally 8--12, filaments generally fused; disk generally between stamens and ovary; ovary superior, chambers generally 2--5, placentas axile, style generally 1, stigma generally head-like, lobed. Fruit: generally drupe. Seed: many, often winged or with an aril. Genera In Family: +- 50 genera, +- 550 species: tropics, subtropics (some temperate). Timber, including mahogany (Swietenia). eFlora Treatment Author: Robert E. Preston & Elizabeth McClintock Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.
Common Name: BEAD TREE Leaf: deciduous, petioled. Inflorescence: panicle; flowers many. Flower: white or purple; sepals generally 5; petals generally 5; filament tube 10--12-lobed at tip (lobes sometimes further divided), anthers 10--12; pistil surrounded by, +- = filament tube, ovary chambers 5--8, style +- as wide as ovary, stigma. Etymology: (Greek: ash tree, from leaf shape) Unabridged Reference: Miller 1990 J Arnold Arbor 71:453--486
Melia azedarach L.
NATURALIZED Habit: Tree, < 10 m. Stem: branches broadly spreading; bark furrowed. Leaf: +- 20--40 cm; 1° leaflets +- 5--9; 2° leaflets generally 5--7 per 1° leaflet, 2.5--5 cm, ovate to lanceolate, toothed. Flower: white to lilac, fragrant; sepals +- 2--3 mm; petals +- 5 mm, oblong; filament tube +- 5 mm, purple, aging black. Fruit: 10--15 mm, spheric, yellow. Seed: 1, bony. Ecology: Washes, riparian areas, coastal scrub, or persisting near old habitations; Elevation: < 1280 m. Bioregional Distribution: SnFrB, SCo, SnGb, SnBr, PR; Distribution Outside California: native to southeastern Asia, northern Australia. Flowering Time: Mar--Jul Note: Fast-growing, used in reforestation; fruit pulp mildly toxic; seeds used for beads. Jepson eFlora Author: Robert E. Preston & Elizabeth McClintock Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Melia Next taxon: Menyanthaceae
Citation for this treatment: Robert E. Preston & Elizabeth McClintock 2012, Melia azedarach, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=33069, accessed on January 24, 2025.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on January 24, 2025.
Geographic subdivisions for Melia azedarach:
SnFrB, SCo, SnGb, SnBr, PR
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurrence).
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Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
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Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).
